This invention relates to a novel method for the treatment of systemic mycosis. More particularly, it is concerned with a method for the treatment of systemic mycosis which comprises administering an active compound, (S)-2-amino-5-hydroxy-4-oxopentanoicacid.
Under the present circumstances, only a limited number of antimycotic agents are available for the treatment of systemic mycoses. Such drugs currently marketed are as follow: the polyene antibiotic amphotericin B; the pyrimidine analog flucytosine; and the imidazole derivatives miconazole and ketoconazole. All of these drugs are far from ideal because they have problems with their limited antimicrobial spectrum and effectiveness, toxicity and side effects, unfavorable pharmacokinetics and/or development of resistance. Thus, unlike therapy for bacterial infections, very few and unsatisfactory therapeutic agents have been developed for the treatment of infections caused by fungi. This appears to be mainly due to the fact that like humans and animals, fungi are eukaryotic, and it has been difficult to develop antimycotic agents that have the selectivity to mycotic structures and metabolic processes that antibacterial agents have for bacteria.
Systemic mycoses are now becoming more important in clinical practice. This is due in major part to the rising incidence of serious mycoses among compromized patients. Candidiasis is the infection most often encountered in such patients that is followed by aspergillosis and cryptococcosis.
Despite the drawbacks and limitations of the above-mentioned antimycotic agents, they are all that are available for the treatment of the patients with systemic mycoses.
The present inventors have made intensive studies to develop a more desirable antimycotic agent useful for the treatment of systemic mycosis and, as a result, they have discovered a compound which has a potent antimycotic activity without appreciable toxicity.
It is, accordingly, a primary object of this invention to provide a method using of (S)-2-amino-5-hydroxy-4-oxopentanoicacid as antimycotic agent.